The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: July 22, 2007

Official News - page 9


REAL LIFE NEWS: GERMAN COMPUTER DEFENESTRATION

by Hazed

I have loved the word "defenestration" ever since I first heard it as a teenager. It's such a grand way to refer to chucking something - or somebody - out of a window. Did you know that the Thirty Year's War, back in 17th century Europe, was kicked off by an event officially called by historians "The Defenestration of Prague"? That's almost as wacky as the nine-year punch-up between the English and the Spanish called - I kid you not - "The War of Jenkins' Ear!"

So it's a pleasure to be able to use the word defenestration in a headline. Little things that like make a newsdroid's day.

Anyway, after that long-winded introduction, it's quite a short story really. A German guy who got extremely annoyed with his computer did what we have probably all thought about doing at one point or another - he chucked it out of the window. Police in Hanover were alerted in the middle of the night by neighbours who reported hearing a loud crash outside their apartment block. When they turned up to investigate, they found the pavement strewn with electronic debris.

The unnamed defenestrator avoided being charged or fined, but was made to clear up the mess. After all, the police admitted, "Who hasn't felt like doing that?"

The news story did not say what operating system the computer was running - but I think we can guess!

Incidentally, if you want to find out who got chucked out of a window in Prague, and why somebody's ear caused a war, well look it up on the net!


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